I cringe.
“From the mud.” I clear my throat. “How was yours—” I frown as I suddenly flash back to the beginning of the initiation,beforemy madness with Vaughn.
“Oh my God!” I blurt, remembering the huge man towering over Gabby growling “change of plans”. “Right! What happened with?—”
“Nothing,” she replies quickly, her voice cracking a little.
My brow furrows. “But did you figure out what happened to your friend?”
“Oh, yeah, no…” She pauses. “They said it was a conflict of interest.”
I mean, it does make sense that the Syndicate wouldn’t want an initiate’s friend to be their Adept. I’ve heard of sororities doing the same to avoid anyone “going easy” on a pledge.
My mouth twists as I remember something else she said that night. “Oh, jeez, does that mean you had to?—”
“Snakes, yeah,” she says quickly, her voice shaking. She forces an awkward laugh. “No luck avoiding that.” She blows out a breath, clearly not wanting to talk about it. “What about you? What was the fear you had to face?”
A monster.
“Monsters,” I blurt.
When she pauses, I scrunch my face up.
“I mean obviously notactualmonsters,” I add with another nervous laugh. “But like, being afraid of a jump-scare.”
“Yikes,” Gabby mumbles. “Inthatcreepy place? Sounds terrifying.”
“It was, yeah.” I swallow, heat rising in my cheeks. “Yeah, it was terrifying.”
Terrifying how much I enjoyed it.
Terrifying how much I’ve been fantasizing about it nonstop ever since.
“So who was the guy you got instead of your friend?”
“Evie…” There’s caution in her tone. “We’re not supposed to talk about who our Adepts are.”
“Oh, right, of course,” I mumble.
She laughs awkwardly. “Although, I guess it'll become pretty obvious at the get-together on Saturday night.”
My brow furrows. “The what?”
“The Syndicate cocktail party,” Gabby continues. “At that penthouse on Central Park West?”
My mouth purses. “I…don’t think I was invited.”
She snorts. “Of course you were! It’s like athingfor Adepts and their Acolytes. Did your Adept not tell you about it yet?”
Yet.
“I…I guess not,” I hazard, my brows knitting. “Hey, how often have you and your Adept talked since the initiation, anyway?”
“Just…” Her voice cracks again. “Just a few times. That’s all.”
A few times.
For me, it’s been five days of radio silence.
